Somewhere along the way of another dominant performance, Ella Cruce reached a milestone with plenty of time left to build on the initial superlative.
Platte County senior Kate Brunner hits a spike against Fort Osage on Tuesday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
Platte County’s standout junior continued to shine in Tuesday’s 25-14, 25-18, 25-8 sweep of Fort Osage and recorded the 1,000th assist of her career, totaling 23 in the Suburban Conference White Division matchup at Pirate Fieldhouse. She split time a year ago in a two-setter rotation before taking over the duties solo this fall.
“I honestly think it means a lot, but essentially, I couldn’t do it without the people that I had,” Cruce said. “That’s my job to get them the ball, but they had the way to kill it and that gave me the assist. But it means a lot to me to be able to achieve that as a junior.”
Platte County (16-7-2) remained unbeaten in conference play with Cruce divvying out assists to an increasingly unpredictable and multi-facted offense. The Pirates have now won four straight with just two losses in the past 11 matches — the success coinciding with a varied attack featuring five different major contributors.
Against Fort Osage, Platte County senior Kate Brunner hit double digits with 10 kills, while junior Charlotte Schlake and sophomore Kylie Hill added six apiece. The Pirates pulled away late behind strong service, but senior Emma Brinkman and junior Miah Omoike also finished with three kills each.
Platte County junior Charlotte Schlake hits a spike against Fort Osage on Tuesday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
“All of our hitters are so special in their own ways, and they all have tricks and shots that they can do,” Cruce said. “I just trust all of my hitters to put the ball away whenever I need them to.”
After a dominant opening set, Platte County trailed early in the second but slowly chipped away in big part due to strong defense. The Pirates finished with seven total blocks — a match-high five assists for Brinkman and four from Omoike — while Hill (11), junior Collins Cole (11) and junior libero Mikah Buntz (eight) were the leaders in digs.
In the third set, Cruce opened on the service line and put up two of her team-high five service aces during a quick 5-0 run. She and junior Phoebe Pennington fueled the dominant closing stretch with Fort Osage wilting on the return game. Cruce served twice in the third and finished with 15 service points, while Pennington added nine total — one behind Brinkman’s 10.
“I’ve learned as long as I keep it in the first two (serves), I won’t get yelled at,” Cruce said with a laugh. “I think coach (Katlyn) Donovan picked a really good zone to serve at, and I really honed in on that girl.”
Platte County junior Phoebe Pennington hits a serve against Fort Osage on Thursday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
Coupled with Thursday’s win against William Chrisman, Platte County sits at 9-0 in White Division play entering the final two weeks of the regular season with a road test at Grain Valley awaiting on Tuesday. The Pirates had beaten Fort Osage in similar fashion just a week earlier but have experienced no letdowns while pursuing the program’s first conference title since 2023.
In addition, Platte County needs just five more wins to reach 20 in a season for the ninth time in 10 years with last fall’s 18-11-2 record the lone exception.
“We are focusing in on every single little detail that we can,” Cruce said. “Our wins, our losses, we’re learning from everything, and especially in practice, we are pushing ourselves to be the best we can be so that at the end of the season when it matters we are dominating and winning.”
Platte County 3, William Chrisman 0
The Pirates honored Brinkman, Brunenr and Serenity Eschliman on senior night ahead of Thursday’s 25-15, 25-9, 25-15 conference sweep at Pirate Stadium.
Hill posted 10 kills, while Brunner (nine), Brinkman (eight) and Omoike (eight) were right behind in Platte County’s attack this time around. The Pirates’ 11 service aces were divided between Pennington and Cruce (four apiece) and Cole (three). Eschliman played in two of the three sets and posted a kill.
Cruce totaled 30 assists.
Buntz led the defense with 13 digs, and Platte County overcame 22 total errors — 15 in attack — to complete the season sweep of William Chrisman (13-9-3). All four of the Pirates’ wins in the current streak have been in White Division play with a nonconference triangular with Staley and North Kansas City up next on Monday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
